Its Monday 17th of April. This morning met us with lots of fresh soft snow and more whiteout (low clouds or falling snow where shadows and contours on the ground disappear, it makes skiing more difficult). Conditions improved after two-three warm and hard hours, clouds lifted and weather got a bit colder. The rest of the day was beautiful with sun, no wind and minus 15C. Our group functions well and we help each other across the various obstacles. We have crossed difficult leads of open water today, where we also had to use our two large sleds as bridge to get across. This we can do on two-three meter wide leads. We lash the two sleds together to make a catamaran, and push them out in the water. This raft floats well and becomes a stable platform; we then crawl across to the other side one after another. This system works on small leads, but on wider leads we need to find a crossing point.
We did 15,5 kilometre on our ten hour long day. It’s now 46 kilometres left to the Pole, and it looks like we will make it with good margin. At the end of the day however, we came to an enormous lead, 3-400 metre wide. We made camp nearby this lead, and Thomas and I went out to look for a crossing point for tomorrow. Pressure ridges and large leads have one thing in common; they don’t last forever. When we meet such leads there is just one thing to do and that is to walk along it until we find a crossing point. They can be several kilometres long but sooner or later the lead will close. The good thing about such leads is that they take up a lot of the movement in the ice and we hope conditions are more stable on the other side. Looking forward to show you the photos from this great adventure. All are in good shape and without injuries.
Regards, Svante
All greetings have been sent to the participants via text message.
